What a year

Today I composed a letter to all of the priests in the Diocese of Manchester to highlight the work of our students and faculty in Campus Ministry this year.  As I looked back on the year, I was blown away by all they did.  Bravo to everyone for their work and assistance:

Prayer

 

·         We gathered about once a month for school-wide Masses.  We are grateful to Bishop Libasci, Msgr. Anthony Frontierio, and Fathers Jerome Day, OSB, John Bucchino, OFM, Mark Cooper, OSB, Richard Dion, Richard Kelley, John Fortin, OSB for celebrating Masses for us this year. 

·         Our students attended class centered retreats: the freshmen focused on service, the sophomores looked at their role in the world, the juniors focused on their faith journey, and the seniors tackled leadership.

·         Each day during Lent, students gathered in the school chapel to learn about a different prayer tradition or experience in the Catholic Church

·         We had all day confessions the week before Holy Week.  14 wonderful priests, including Bishop McCormack, assisted us throughout the day.

·         Our students and families provided us with the names of their beloved dead and their names were placed on cards in our chapel during the month of November

·         20 students visited five parishes on Holy Thursday evening during the reposition of the Blessed Sacrament

·         A group of seniors performed the Stations of the Cross the morning of Holy Thursday for the school community

·         Father Richard Dion blessed the throats of students around the Feast of Saint Blaise

·         One of our alums, Cam Pichette ’11, requested permission to receive the Sacraments of Initiation before leaving for the Marines.  Father Jason Jalbert performed the ceremony with many Trinity teachers in attendance

·         Our students took time to learn the new translation of the Mass

Service

·         Our students donated baby products to benefit Our Place in Manchester (their donations filled an entire Chevy Suburban)

·         Trinity students donated 1,410 pounds of food during a canned food drive to benefit Care Givers of Bedford

·         Close to 100 Trinity students and adult chaperones attended the March for Life in Washington, DC

·         A number of our students volunteered to prepare for Bishop Libasci’s installation Mass and reception

·         Each day during Advent, our students performed some service in a program called “25 Days of Service”

·         Our students donated close to 400 books as Christmas presents for the students of the Henry Wilson School in Manchester

·         Trinity and Saint Joseph Junior High School students donated close to 500 Thanksgiving baskets to benefit Blessed Sacrament and Transfiguration Parishes in Manchester

·         We donated closed to $200 in hygiene products for young people in Haiti

·         75 students spent an October night outside on the lawn of Trinity High School to raise money and awareness of homelessness.  They raised $3,141 to benefit New Horizons and Families in Transition in Manchester

Community
·         Over 200 grandparents and grandchildren joined us for our first ever Grandparents’ Day which consisted of Mass, a tour of the school, and a luncheon

·         We celebrated Catholic Schools Week by providing coffee and donuts to parents as they dropped off their children, we had Mass, our upperclassmen watched a video on the history of women religious, and our students were treated to ice cream sundaes

·         7 Trinity boys attended a vocation dinner with the bishop and seminarians

·         We honored Sister Frances Lessard, CSC, Trinity’s first assistant principal, on the occasion of her 65^th anniversary of religious profession

·         We had a Living Nativity at our annual Choir and Band Christmas Concert

·         6 students got up at 5am on a Sunday to greet troops going overseas at Pease in Portsmouth

·         Bishop Libasci visited Trinity High School on the morning of his appointment by Pope Benedict. 

·         Our students placed 2,974 flags on the front lawn of Trinity to honor the dead on the 10^th anniversary of September 11